The Australian Farm Institute included in its most recent Roundtable Summit a paper by Dr John Carter's called "Potential for trading carbon in agriculture" which could have been entitled "101 Reasons Why Soil Carbon Can Never Be Traded." Dr Carter, Principal Scientist with the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water.
He nailed the target to the wall in the form of this statement:
"In practice, the following attributes of trading schemes make soil carbon accounting a difficult task:
• inclusion of all gases, all pools
• gross-net or net-net accounting
• time periods for locking up carbon in
commercial contracts (up to 125 years)
• avoidance of leakage
• accounting for future risk and measurement uncertainty
• need for auditing, certification and verification."
It's up to us to score a bullseye, one by one. We will be dealing with each issue raised in Dr Carter's paper in turn. It could take some time and resources, but we must do it if we are to achieve our goal. And we thank Dr Carter for setting the target for us so clearly. If we can answer each of his points, we don't deserve to succeed.
* Australian Greenhouse Office, Developing a Strategic Framework for Greenhouse and Agriculture. An Issues Paper, 2002
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Who said this? "Australian soils can't store carbon"
"The bulk of Australian farms may not operate as carbon sinks, due to the age of the soils."
That was the Executive Director of a very significant independent research organisation.
Here's another one:
"Typically Australian soils have a poor capacity to store large quantities of carbon."
This one is from one of the most important government advisors on greenhouse issues.
These are the type of comments the Ministerial Enquiry into Soil Carbon Sequestration are going to hear from "expert witnesses".
Yet, when told of the first comment, the head of the department of soil science at a leading university laughed out loud: "What a curious thing to say." His colleagues agreed. Soil age is irrelevant.
When told of the second comment, the president of an important scientific association working in the field said: "There are many myths out there." One of his colleagues remarked: "The people who make these remarks don't get around enough to know what's going on."
These men then rattled off a long list of soils and regions that can sequester oodles of carbon. That such august bodies should harbour such ignorance is tragic. The damage they can do is immense.
That was the Executive Director of a very significant independent research organisation.
Here's another one:
"Typically Australian soils have a poor capacity to store large quantities of carbon."
This one is from one of the most important government advisors on greenhouse issues.
These are the type of comments the Ministerial Enquiry into Soil Carbon Sequestration are going to hear from "expert witnesses".
Yet, when told of the first comment, the head of the department of soil science at a leading university laughed out loud: "What a curious thing to say." His colleagues agreed. Soil age is irrelevant.
When told of the second comment, the president of an important scientific association working in the field said: "There are many myths out there." One of his colleagues remarked: "The people who make these remarks don't get around enough to know what's going on."
These men then rattled off a long list of soils and regions that can sequester oodles of carbon. That such august bodies should harbour such ignorance is tragic. The damage they can do is immense.
Federal Government announces an enquiry into soil carbon
The Carbon Coalition sent Senator Ian Campbell (Environment Minister) the information below and the same day he announces an enquiry. (If Only it was that simple.) The Australian Newspaper announced that the Government had a budget of $100,000 for a "project" which will bring together US and Australian researchers to work on tools to measure the amount of carbon stored. (We can tell the Minister from bitter experience that a hundred grand doesn't get much methodology testing.)
SOILS ARE THE ONLY SHORT TERM SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING
The experts agree: only soils can sequester significant amounts of atmospheric Carbon in the next 30 years. Every other solution will take 30 years to start shifting meaningful volumes.
“It buys us time…”
“C Sequestration in soil and vegetation is a bridge to the future. It buys us time while alternatives to fossil fuel take effect.”
Dr Rattan Lal
Director, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Professor of Soil Science, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Resources
Ohio State University
Liebig Applied Soil Science Award, World Congress of Soil Science 2006
“Unlike others… it is immediate…”
"Unlike many other technologies to offset fossil fuel emissions, land management for soil C sequestration can be implemented immediately, provided there are incentives to do so. An immediate offset of CO2 emissions provides a significant delay in the rise of atmospheric CO2 concentration. By the time that land management C sequestration begins to saturate the soil’s capacity to store additional C, other methods of reducing emissions or sequestering carbon may be available or already in use.”
Professor Bruce McCarl, Agricultural Economist and Economist, Climate Change, Texas A&M University
Member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
“Available… low cost…”
"Terrestrial C sequestration could have an immediate application in climate change mitigation due to its availability, relatively low cost, and associated environmental benefits."
R.W. Izaurrable and C.W.Rice, "Methods and Tools for Designing a Pilot Soil Carbon Sequestration Project", in Carbon Sequestration in Soils of Latin America, Lal et al. eds, 2006
“It’s here… now…”
“Terrestrial sequestration is here and now. It’s user friendly. It’s the Mom’s Apple Pie of sequestration.”
Dr. John Antle,
Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University
Technical Leader, Economics, BigSky Carbon Sequestration Partnership
FACT: “Carbon scrubbing” at source does not reduce the existing CO2 burden in the atmosphere
FACT: “Geosequestation” (burial beneath deep cap rock formations and exhausted oil wells) does not reduce the existing CO2 burden and researchers say it will take 100 years to determine if it is effective
FACT: Forests can be net emitters in their early stages and take many years to reach their sequestration potential
SOILS ARE THE ONLY SHORT TERM SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING
The experts agree: only soils can sequester significant amounts of atmospheric Carbon in the next 30 years. Every other solution will take 30 years to start shifting meaningful volumes.
“It buys us time…”
“C Sequestration in soil and vegetation is a bridge to the future. It buys us time while alternatives to fossil fuel take effect.”
Dr Rattan Lal
Director, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Professor of Soil Science, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Resources
Ohio State University
Liebig Applied Soil Science Award, World Congress of Soil Science 2006
“Unlike others… it is immediate…”
"Unlike many other technologies to offset fossil fuel emissions, land management for soil C sequestration can be implemented immediately, provided there are incentives to do so. An immediate offset of CO2 emissions provides a significant delay in the rise of atmospheric CO2 concentration. By the time that land management C sequestration begins to saturate the soil’s capacity to store additional C, other methods of reducing emissions or sequestering carbon may be available or already in use.”
Professor Bruce McCarl, Agricultural Economist and Economist, Climate Change, Texas A&M University
Member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
“Available… low cost…”
"Terrestrial C sequestration could have an immediate application in climate change mitigation due to its availability, relatively low cost, and associated environmental benefits."
R.W. Izaurrable and C.W.Rice, "Methods and Tools for Designing a Pilot Soil Carbon Sequestration Project", in Carbon Sequestration in Soils of Latin America, Lal et al. eds, 2006
“It’s here… now…”
“Terrestrial sequestration is here and now. It’s user friendly. It’s the Mom’s Apple Pie of sequestration.”
Dr. John Antle,
Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University
Technical Leader, Economics, BigSky Carbon Sequestration Partnership
FACT: “Carbon scrubbing” at source does not reduce the existing CO2 burden in the atmosphere
FACT: “Geosequestation” (burial beneath deep cap rock formations and exhausted oil wells) does not reduce the existing CO2 burden and researchers say it will take 100 years to determine if it is effective
FACT: Forests can be net emitters in their early stages and take many years to reach their sequestration potential
Sunday, November 12, 2006
HOWARD CRACKS ON CARBON AFTER BUSH FALLS
The Australian Government finally waved the white flag on Kyoto. Australia will introduce a "Carbon Tax" and begin trading carbon credits in the next round of Kyoto.
Treasurer Peter Costello said what PM Howard couldn't bring himself to say: "As the world moves towards a carbon trading system, Australia obviously can't stand out against the rest of the world." What? Australia was happy to stand out against the world alongside the other climate sceptic George W. Bush. Less than a week after the collapse of President Bush's ascendency, Mr Costello was frank: "I think the ground is changing," he told ABC television today.
"From Australia's point of view if the world starts moving towards a carbon trading system, we can't be left out of that." What? The world has a carbon trading system. Only we're not in it.
Treasurer Peter Costello said what PM Howard couldn't bring himself to say: "As the world moves towards a carbon trading system, Australia obviously can't stand out against the rest of the world." What? Australia was happy to stand out against the world alongside the other climate sceptic George W. Bush. Less than a week after the collapse of President Bush's ascendency, Mr Costello was frank: "I think the ground is changing," he told ABC television today.
"From Australia's point of view if the world starts moving towards a carbon trading system, we can't be left out of that." What? The world has a carbon trading system. Only we're not in it.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Soils: A Radical View by a CSIRO Scientist
The following is an extract* from a paper published in the CSIRO Newsletter "Sustainability" No. 61
“Soil Fertility Management – Towards Sustainable Farming Systems and Landscapes” by Dr Maarten Stapper CSIRO
In a nutshell: Soil fertility is the capacity to receive, store and transmit energy to support plant growth. These processes require healthy soils – living, self-organising systems with physical, chemical and biological components all functioning and in balance. Continuous use of acidic or salty synthetic fertilisers, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides disrupts this delicate balance. Organic Farming has recognised this, but needs to follow its leaders to active soil fertility management. Carbon, in particular, is of critical importance and needs to be maximised through capture with solar energy through photosynthesis by green plants, and optimum storage and use in the soil. Before we can hope to improve systems, however, we need to understand (1) why they are the way they are, and then (2) how science and practice can help to actively manage soil biology to improve and maintain soil fertility, and achieve more sustainable, healthy and productive farming systems – even on our fragile Australian soils in a highly variable and changing climate.
..........
The road to sustainability: In most districts today, there are properties applying sustainable practices as outlined above. These practices have been achieved with persistence by the manager – through trial and error, under financial pressure, and on fragile soils in our highly variable climate. It is now the task of science, using participatory research, to connect up these ‘dots’ in the landscape using appropriate concepts and principles. A typical agricultural manager is both time poor and cash poor – thereby, of necessity, readily following advise from (trusted) outsiders. Action research is needed to develop indicators that conceptualise farmer knowledge of natural resource management. This, in turn, will feed the required information-exchange networks, allowing knowledge to be transferred in time and space to achieve and maintain soil health, optimise production and minimise risk to achieving profitable farms in sustainable rural communities.
*The full paper can be found in the LIBRARY section of this Blog, titled "Stapper on Soil Fertility"
“Soil Fertility Management – Towards Sustainable Farming Systems and Landscapes” by Dr Maarten Stapper CSIRO
In a nutshell: Soil fertility is the capacity to receive, store and transmit energy to support plant growth. These processes require healthy soils – living, self-organising systems with physical, chemical and biological components all functioning and in balance. Continuous use of acidic or salty synthetic fertilisers, insecticides, fungicides and herbicides disrupts this delicate balance. Organic Farming has recognised this, but needs to follow its leaders to active soil fertility management. Carbon, in particular, is of critical importance and needs to be maximised through capture with solar energy through photosynthesis by green plants, and optimum storage and use in the soil. Before we can hope to improve systems, however, we need to understand (1) why they are the way they are, and then (2) how science and practice can help to actively manage soil biology to improve and maintain soil fertility, and achieve more sustainable, healthy and productive farming systems – even on our fragile Australian soils in a highly variable and changing climate.
..........
The road to sustainability: In most districts today, there are properties applying sustainable practices as outlined above. These practices have been achieved with persistence by the manager – through trial and error, under financial pressure, and on fragile soils in our highly variable climate. It is now the task of science, using participatory research, to connect up these ‘dots’ in the landscape using appropriate concepts and principles. A typical agricultural manager is both time poor and cash poor – thereby, of necessity, readily following advise from (trusted) outsiders. Action research is needed to develop indicators that conceptualise farmer knowledge of natural resource management. This, in turn, will feed the required information-exchange networks, allowing knowledge to be transferred in time and space to achieve and maintain soil health, optimise production and minimise risk to achieving profitable farms in sustainable rural communities.
*The full paper can be found in the LIBRARY section of this Blog, titled "Stapper on Soil Fertility"
Monday, November 06, 2006
SOILS ARE THE ONLY SHORT TERM SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING
The experts agree: only soils can sequester significant amounts of atmospheric Carbon in the next 30 years. Every other solution will take 30 years to start shifting meaningful volumes.
“C Sequestration in soil and vegetation is a bridge to the future. It buys us time while alternatives to fossil fuel take effect.”
Dr Rattan Lal
Director, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Professor of Soil Science, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Resources
Ohio State University
Liebig Applied Soil Science Award, World Congress of Soil Science 2006
"Unlike many other technologies to offset fossil fuel emissions, land management for soil C sequestration can be implemented immediately, provided there are incentives to do so. An immediate offset of CO2 emissions provides a significant delay in the rise of atmospheric CO2 concentration. By the time that land management C sequestration begins to saturate the soil’s capacity to store additional C, other methods of reducing emissions or sequestering carbon may be available or already in use.”
Professor Bruce McCarl, Agricultural Economist and Economist, Climate Change, Texas A&M University
Member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
"Terrestrial C sequestration could have an immediate application in climate change mitigation due to its availability, relatively low cost, and associated environmental benefits."
R.W. Izaurrable and C.W.Rice, "Methods and Tools for Designing a Pilot Soil Carbon Sequestration Project", in Carbon Sequestration in Soils of Latin America, Lal et al. eds, 2006
“Terrestrial sequestration is here and now. It’s user friendly. It’s the Mom’s Apple Pie of sequestration.”
Dr. John Antle, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University
Technical Leader, Economics, BigSky Carbon Sequestration Partnership
FACT: “Carbon scrubbing” at source does not reduce the existing CO2 burden in the atmosphere
FACT: “Geosequestation” (burial beneath deep cap rock formations and exhausted oil wells) does not reduce the existing CO2 burden and researchers say it will take 100 years to determine if it is effective
FACT: Forests can be net emitters in their early stages and take many years to reach their sequestration potential
WHY DO SCIENTISTS SAY SOILS CAN’T BE TRADED?
The Case for Averaging Soil C Sample Values to Enable Trading
Flux and soil variability are thrown in our faces whenever we ask for trading units of soil carbon. But one important US scientist has broken ranks with his colleagues to argue for sanity to prevail: "It is often pointed out that soils have a large amount of variability, but with knowledge of soil sciences and landscapes, variability can be described and sampling protocols can be developed to deal with this," writes Dr John Kimble in a paper published this year*. "One reason I feel people say that soils vary and SOC cannot be measured is that we soil scientists focus on showing variability, not on showing what we know about the variability. In soils we can go to a 100m2 field and sample every square meter and look at the differences we find. But if you sample every tree in a large area you would see a similar variability." Dr Kimble works for the US Department of Agriculture, National Resources Conservation Service, National Soil Survey Centre, Lincoln, Nebraska. "We too often focus on this [variability], worry about laboratory precision and field variation and do not look at the real world where most things are based on averages and estimated data. We tend to focus on finding variation and not on using our knowledge of soil science to describe what we know. All systems vary, but in soils we focus on a level of precision and accuracy that may not have any relevance to the real world because we can take so many samples and look at the variation."
*Kimble, J., "Advances In Models To Measure Soil Carbon: Can Soil Carbon Really Be Measured?", in Lal, R., Cerri, C., Bernoux, M., Etchevers, J., and Cerri, E., eds., Carbon Sequestration in Soils in Latin America, Food Products Press, Birmingham, NY, 2006
“C Sequestration in soil and vegetation is a bridge to the future. It buys us time while alternatives to fossil fuel take effect.”
Dr Rattan Lal
Director, Carbon Management and Sequestration Center
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Professor of Soil Science, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, School of Natural Resources
Ohio State University
Liebig Applied Soil Science Award, World Congress of Soil Science 2006
"Unlike many other technologies to offset fossil fuel emissions, land management for soil C sequestration can be implemented immediately, provided there are incentives to do so. An immediate offset of CO2 emissions provides a significant delay in the rise of atmospheric CO2 concentration. By the time that land management C sequestration begins to saturate the soil’s capacity to store additional C, other methods of reducing emissions or sequestering carbon may be available or already in use.”
Professor Bruce McCarl, Agricultural Economist and Economist, Climate Change, Texas A&M University
Member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
"Terrestrial C sequestration could have an immediate application in climate change mitigation due to its availability, relatively low cost, and associated environmental benefits."
R.W. Izaurrable and C.W.Rice, "Methods and Tools for Designing a Pilot Soil Carbon Sequestration Project", in Carbon Sequestration in Soils of Latin America, Lal et al. eds, 2006
“Terrestrial sequestration is here and now. It’s user friendly. It’s the Mom’s Apple Pie of sequestration.”
Dr. John Antle, Professor of Agricultural Economics and Economics at Montana State University
Technical Leader, Economics, BigSky Carbon Sequestration Partnership
FACT: “Carbon scrubbing” at source does not reduce the existing CO2 burden in the atmosphere
FACT: “Geosequestation” (burial beneath deep cap rock formations and exhausted oil wells) does not reduce the existing CO2 burden and researchers say it will take 100 years to determine if it is effective
FACT: Forests can be net emitters in their early stages and take many years to reach their sequestration potential
WHY DO SCIENTISTS SAY SOILS CAN’T BE TRADED?
The Case for Averaging Soil C Sample Values to Enable Trading
Flux and soil variability are thrown in our faces whenever we ask for trading units of soil carbon. But one important US scientist has broken ranks with his colleagues to argue for sanity to prevail: "It is often pointed out that soils have a large amount of variability, but with knowledge of soil sciences and landscapes, variability can be described and sampling protocols can be developed to deal with this," writes Dr John Kimble in a paper published this year*. "One reason I feel people say that soils vary and SOC cannot be measured is that we soil scientists focus on showing variability, not on showing what we know about the variability. In soils we can go to a 100m2 field and sample every square meter and look at the differences we find. But if you sample every tree in a large area you would see a similar variability." Dr Kimble works for the US Department of Agriculture, National Resources Conservation Service, National Soil Survey Centre, Lincoln, Nebraska. "We too often focus on this [variability], worry about laboratory precision and field variation and do not look at the real world where most things are based on averages and estimated data. We tend to focus on finding variation and not on using our knowledge of soil science to describe what we know. All systems vary, but in soils we focus on a level of precision and accuracy that may not have any relevance to the real world because we can take so many samples and look at the variation."
*Kimble, J., "Advances In Models To Measure Soil Carbon: Can Soil Carbon Really Be Measured?", in Lal, R., Cerri, C., Bernoux, M., Etchevers, J., and Cerri, E., eds., Carbon Sequestration in Soils in Latin America, Food Products Press, Birmingham, NY, 2006
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Coalition Walks Against Warming
It was a small band of brave souls who held the Carbon Coalition banner high and carried it through the streets of Sydney on 4th November during the "Walk Against Warming". Sydney-based members Shane Press (and his son Brendon), Kevin and Leisel James, Jeff Sanders, and Jessica Kiely joined Goolma-based member Michael Kiely to walk with at least 100,000 people. Kevin made the banner, Jessica wrote the slogan, and Jeff manhandled it against the wind. We were interviewed by a TV crew from the Weather Channel. many people came up to us and congratulated us and mentioned that their sympathies are with people in the bush. The Commonwealth Shadow Minister For The Environment Anthony ALbanese spoke for 10 minutes with us, and now understands the importace of soils and asked to be sent more information for a white paper he is preparing on the environment and water policy. Many more people asked for our briefing sheet. It was a successful day. BIG THANKS go to Kevin and Marc Pop for making the banner and to those who walked. Unforturnately this is the only way the media will hear our message.
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